GUARDIANS GIVE BACK

February 2015 “Guardians Give Back”

Dear Parents,

We have chosen to support the breakfast program at an elementary school in our city as our “Guardians Give Back” program this year. During the month of February we are collecting boxes of cereal which will be donated to help feed those in need. If you are able to participate, please send any donations in with your child and we will arrange delivery at the end of the month.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Mr. Francia and Mrs. Cosman

Hands On Science

The University of Windsor's "let's talk science" program landed at St. Gabriel today!! The grade 5's are solving a serious mystery involving fingerprints, physical and chemical changes. Their job is to use science to help foil a thief who  stole a secret formula out from under the Governments nose.

The grade 6's are being introduced to a unit about space exploration . They are learning about orbiters, landers and rovers that travel to distant planets. They will be creating their own lander to test some theories.

Co-operative Fun!

We started a unit on co-operative games last week. Physical education is meant to be fun, creative and a way to build a lifelong appreciation of staying fit. That being said, we still have curriculum expectations that need to be addressed and assessed. Our units include success criteria that pertain to safety concerns, social and participation aspects of the physical education curriculum. In the pictures below you will notice the success criteria posted in the gym. The students are reminded every time we are in the gym that these are the criteria that we use to assess their success. It's not about being the best athlete in the class. It's about fully participating in the activities, being a leader, being a good group member and it's about staying safe. Eventually they will create their own co-operative game that they will demonstrate to the class. The culminating activity will also have a set of success criteria against which the groups will be assessed. In the activities today they are working together to create a series of scenes that demonstrate balance and co-operation. They quickly discover that they need to communicate and work as a team in order to complete the task.

MEASUREMENT MATH TEST

We will be having our end of unit math test this week (probably Wednesday) on measurement. These are some areas to concentrate on before the test. As always, completing the "Show what you Know' section is always a good way to start.

GRADE 6

• BE ABLE TO DETERMINE THE SURFACE AREA AND VOLUME OF RECTANGULAR PRISMS
• BE ABLE TO CONVERT BETWEEN FOLLOWING: MILLILITRES, LITRES AND CUBIC  CENTIMETRES, CUBIC LITRES
• BE ABLE TO CONVERT BETWEEN THE FOLLOW: GRAMS, MILLIGRAMS, KILOGRAMS AND TONNES
• THERE WILL ALSO BE SEVERAL WORD PROBLEMS THAT INVOLVE FINDING THE AREA AND VOLUME OF ITEMS AND SPACES

GRADE 5

• BE ABLE TO CONVERT BETWEEN FOLLOWING: MILLILITRES, LITRES
• BE ABLE TO CONVERT BETWEEN THE FOLLOW: GRAMS, MILLIGRAMS, KILOGRAMS AND TONNES
• BE ABLE TO DETERMINE ELAPSED TIME BOTH IN WORD PROBLEMS AND WITH ANALOG CLOCKS.
• BE ABLE TO WRITE  TIME AND DATE IN SI NOTATION--IN SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW 
• BE ABLE TO DETERMINE THE VOLUME OF A RECTANGULAR PRISM USING STANDARD CUBIC CENTIMETRE SNAP CUBES

Thinking About Our Thinking??

A great deal of research is telling us that students of all ages need time to reflect on their thinking and generally talk to each other about their work.  Over the last few days we have been working on how to use INFERRING (reading between the lines) to help us draw conclusions about what we read and how inferring can help us to understand what we are reading more deeply. In the pictures below, the students are taking a piece of writing and looking for the clues that help them make inferences about the text. They are also including evidence from  the text that help them to draw their conclusions.

After that we take a few samples and discuss them as a class. We look at our criteria for inferring and discuss some examples that groups have pointed out. The pictures below are the next step in the process. The students are then give some sticky notes and asked to go through the examples from other groups of students. The students are asked to look at the work and give their friends an honest critique of their work. We encourage 1 positive comment first and then one or two critiques. Students sign their sticky notes in order to avoid anonymous negative only comments.
There is a great deal of learning going on throughout this whole process. Students learn to evaluate each others work against a set of specific criteria. They get to 'see' other groups thinking reflected in the work they produced. Students also discuss what makes a good inference-they get to hear from their peers and not just from the teacher. This activity will be followed up with individual practice with inferring from both fiction and non-fiction texts.

Electricity Projects

The grade 6's presented their hands on electrical creations! They were supposed to create a working electrical device that could send a meaningful signal to someone across the room. They came up with some creative solutions to the problem. They worked with alligator clamps, 9v batteries and a variety of switches, lights and buzzers. They also had to include a schematic drawing of the circuit that powered their device.

 

Happy New Year!!

I hope the Christmas Holiday was joyful and restful for all our St.Gabriel families. Now it's time to get back to work!! The pace will start to pick up over the next few weeks as we head into report cards and student led conferences. By this point in the year, the students know the classroom expectations and I know them a little better as well. I have placed a few more pictures of anchor charts that we developed today for our next unit in math. You can follow THIS LINK to the anchor charts or go to the class website, that's where they are all year round.